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The Outlaw

In 1941, Director Howard Hughes, while filming the movie The Outlaw, felt that the camera did not do justice to Jane Russell's large bust. He employed his engineering skills to design an underwired, cantilevered bra to emphasise her assets. Hughes added rods of curved structural steel that were sewn into the brassiere below each breast. The rods were connected to the bra's shoulder straps. The arrangement allowed the breasts to be pulled upward and made it possible to move the shoulder straps away from the neck. The design allowed for any amount of bosom to be freely exposed.

Regardless, the emphasis on her breasts proved too much for the Hollywood Production Code Administration, which ordered cuts to the film. To obtain the Boards' required Seal of Approval, Hughes reluctantly removed about 40 feet, or a half-minute, of footage that featured Jane Russell's bosom. He still had problems getting the film distributed, so Hughes schemed to create a public outcry for his film to be banned. The resulting controversy generated enough interest to get The Outlaw into the theatres for one week in 1943, before being withdrawn due to objections by the Code censors. When the film was finally released in 1950, it was a box office hit.

Russell later asserted that she never wore Hughes' bra, and that Hughes never knew.^[37] This story is now considered to be an urban myth. ^[38].

Source from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The 1970s onwards

In the 70s, like other garment makers, bra manufacturers moved production offshore. The evolution of the bra reflects the constantly changing idea of what an 'ideal' woman should look like - flat, round, pointy, conical, or even 'natural'. The contemporary bra also reflects advances in manufacturing and availability of fabric types and colours, enabling it to be transformed from a utilitarian item to a fashion statement, countering the negative attitudes some women had about bras. Designers have also incorporated numerous devices to produce varying shapes, cleavage, and to give women bras they could wear with open-back dresses, off-the-shoulder dresses, plunging necklines, and the like.

Two design challenges that bra manufacturers face at present seem paradoxical. On the one hand, there is a demand for minimal bras that allow plunging necklines and reduce interference with the lines of outergarments, such as the shelf bra. On the other hand, body mass and bust size is increasing^[32], leading to a higher demand for larger sizes.^[33] Over a 10 years period, the commonest size purchased in the UK went from 34B to 36C. In 2001, 27% of UK sales were D or larger.^{[34] [35]}

Bras are a billion-dollar industry that continues to grow ($15 billion in the US in 2001, £1 billion in UK^[34]). Large corporations control most bra manufacture, such as HanesBrands Inc.™^{[34] [36]}, Gossard™, Berlei™ and Courtaulds® with 34% of the UK market. Victoria's Secret is an exception.

Source from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki